These red cochineal beetles really get around. First they show up as neon red coloring in foods I recently wrote about in “Hair, Beetles and Beaver Anal Glands in Our Food.” And now the little red buggers have turned up in, of all things, the pink moisture cream I have been daily smoothing into my face for years. A check of the ingredients in my cream, Olay’s Active Hydrating Beauty Fluid, finds Red 4 listed as the last ingredient. Thanks to my recent research, we now know Red #4, Carmine and Crimson Lake are all made of crushed cochineal beetles.

So big deal you say. Aren’t natural dyes made from beetles preferable to petroleum-based chemical dyes? Well, first of all, the processing of cochineal beetles into dye isn’t such a pure deal. The pulverized insects are boiled in ammonia or sodium carbonate. Then alum is added to bring out the red color. Other chemicals may be added along the way, such as stannous chloride, citric acid, borax, gelatin, cream of tartar, potassium hydrogen oxalate, egg white or fish glue. And lime is thrown in to make shades of red-purple.

To me, putting moisture cream on one’s face also means applying it all around that driest of areas — the eyes – including eyelids. Obviously, heeding Olay’s warning, I don’t dab it on my eyeball. But even applying it to shut eyelids won’t guarantee that some cream won’t slip into the lid edge, opening up the possibility of eyeball contact.

Never have I had the slightest problem with Olay cream irritating my eyes. But pink creams from other manufacturers have definitely stung my eyes in the past. (And now I know why.) Also, in Olay’s case, there is only faint pink coloring in its’ cream.

But why, I wonder, is any coloring added at all? To this product or ANY product? Coloring agents, both chemical and so called “natural,” bring nothing helpful or good or positive to ANY product. They’re added purely for so called “eye appeal.” Well sorry, but if it’s a choice between non-colored food, cosmetics and drugs or those dyed rainbow colors, I’ll take the non-colored gang any day.

There may actually be a glimmer of hope here. In preparation for an article about the FDA considering warnings for artificial food coloring, a New York Times writer received an email from Kraft Foods Inc. Their spokeswoman informed him the company was expanding its “portfolio to include products without added colors,” like Kool-Aid Invisible, Capri Sun juices and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Organic White Cheddar.

True, that’s only three little products, but it’s a start. Enough to get a long overdue, no coloring ball rolling.

I’ve been using olive oil as a skin moisturizer and it works great. For my face, I use Sephora’s Hope in a Jar, but not on my eye lids because they’re so incredibly sensitive. I put neosporin on my eyelids at night. If I forget to do that every night my skin is too irritated to tolerate any makeup. I’m sure there’s bad stuff in the makeup.

I know I know, the more I find out, the scarier it is. Jeez. One nice thing – it just shows how tough people are. We can eat wood pulp, hair and feathers in our bread, beetles in our yogurt and beaver butt (as one reader so colorfully called those glands) in our vanilla ice cream and still come out kicking.

Speaking of make-up I’ve got a horror story for lipstick there too – but I’ll maybe give us all a break from this investigative, hair-raising stuff for awhile. I’ve used olive oil soap and liked it. Years ago I decided to stop wearing all coverage make-up on my skin, except blush of course which I couldn’t live without. Think it’s been good both for my skin and pocketbook.